Metro officials say they are taking “appropriate action” against a Metrobus operator who was caught on video driving a bus using only two fingers of one hand.
The operator was driving along busy 14th Street in Northwest D.C. with the steering wheel tilted flat, holding on with just one hand during nearly all of the six-minute video obtained by The Washington Examiner.
The driver occasionally removes the hand to scratch his nose — and honk the horn at vehicles ahead of him. He uses both hands on the wheel only when turning the bus around a traffic circle.
“Excuse me? Can I ask why you’re not driving with both hands on the wheel?” the rider filming him asks.
The bus driver continues to use one hand and calls the rider a “bozo.”
Metrobus drivers are not required to use both hands, said Metro spokesman Philip Stewart. “They are trained to use both hands — starting at 9 and 3 on the wheel — when making turns, maneuvering around curves, and entering and driving through all intersections,” Stewart said.
But driving on a straight stretch like busy 14th Street?
After viewing the video, Metro officials agreed that the driver’s behavior was not OK.
“The video shows driving practices that are unacceptable and inconsistent with the training our bus operators receive,” Stewart said.
Metro declined to say what discipline the driver would face. But Stewart said agency officials were taking “appropriate action.”
Driving with two hands is also a requirement for commercial driver’s licenses that Metrobus drivers must have. The D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles driving manual for those with commercial driver’s licenses explicitly says drivers should hold the wheel firmly with both hands.
“Your hands should be on opposite sides of the wheel. If you hit a curb or a pothole (chuckhole), the wheel could pull away from your hands unless you have a firm hold,” the manual says.
Driving with only one hand is dangerous for any driver, but especially bus drivers, said AAA Mid-Atlantic’s John Townsend.
“That’s not cool and that’s not kosher,” he said. “And that’s not safe, not with the weight of those buses.”
It’s also common sense and the underpinning of every distracted driving law nationwide, Townsend added. With two hands on the wheel, drivers can turn it 180 degrees without removing their hands in an emergency such as avoiding a bicyclist or pedestrian, a tire blowout or skidding out on slick roads, the spokesman for the auto safety club said.
